Durham, Bamburgh, Edinburgh

A very cold start in Durham, but the bed and breakfast was warm. We turned down the full English breakfast, too much of a fatty and salty thing. We walked into town to the Cathedral, an impressive Norman building built in the 10th and 11th centuries. We stayed on for choral matins and sat in the quire. The choir weren’t up to much, the boys particularly weak. As we left the very fine cathedral, the clear crisp morning air and the clean white frost made for a wintry English scene. We didn’t get to see Durham Castle as it doubles as university student accommodation during term and the tours only operate in the afternoon.
After de-icing the car we drove to Morpeth. There is a John Dymond in the phone book in Morpeth but I didn’t disturb him. Morpeth is a likable small town near Newcastle on Tyne. There wasn’t much happening there Sunday morning. There was even less happening in Pegswood. The whole town seemed like a 60s housing project. I couldn’t find anything that looked like it existed when my great grandparents left last century. I couldn’t even find something interesting to photograph. It would seem they made the right decision.
We drove up the Northumberland Coast to Bamburgh Castle and afternoon tea. The temperature dropped to -2 on the way to Scotland. The wiper blades became very firm in the cold and wouldn’t clean the grime off the windscreen, the windscreen washing liquid froze to the windscreen. We did get some photos of the haw frost in the trees though. There was a sign from Nina and Gus’ clan welcoming us to the Scottish Borders. GPS and Rowena’s careful text messaging got us to their flat and a very nice roast dinner of pork and vegetables. Tomorrow we will explore Edinburgh.